Cameroon – Yaounde: The first suspects of the FBI investigation arrested

The suspects, between the ages of 18 and 30, were reported by US federal police, the FBI.

The alleged cybercriminals are reportedly involved in massive scams through social networks.

Their victims, mostly Americans and French, would have been robbed of more than four billion CFA francs.

Since March 2017, Cameroonian justice has been behind some 602 suspected cybercriminals involved in a massive scam through the Facebook social network. At the moment, 90 people have already been arrested, mainly in the cities of Douala, Yaoundé, Bamenda, Buea and Kumba, and their trial is under way.

This vast network has been exposed by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In March 2017, an FBI delegation traveled to Yaoundé to hand over to the authorities a list of 602 Cameroonians who would specialize in the Internet scam via social networks. All in all, these alleged cybercriminals would have stripped their victims that the FBI estimates to 2,700 more than four billion CFA francs. Essentially Americans and French.

The Kalara newspaper reported that some of the defendants who pleaded “guilty” explained that they used false Facebook profiles that were supposed to belong to white people to sell items such as clothing, works of art, pets, etc. whose prices ranged between 30 and 150 euros.

Once a “customer” was interested, they asked him to pay the purchase fee as well as the shipping charge via Visa or MasterCard. Victims had to buy prepaid Visa cards or MasterCard tickets, scrape them and transfer the codes to the scammer via Facebook or via phone. This enabled them to make withdrawals from ATMs in Cameroon.

On the other hand, other persons arraigned pleaded “not guilty“, explaining that if they were involved in this trial, it was by a contingency contest that played against them and led to confusion.

Finally, in the course of the trial currently under way at the Mfoundi High Court in Yaoundé, the prosecution requested the conviction of all the accused, with the exception of two, who produced “convincing” explanations. This is Youmyame Aboubakar, a car salesman who explained that he handed over his laptop for repair to Fru Tetanye who would then use it to commit his package. Also, Ndombe Epoh who claims to have been put in contact with a third party by Fru Tetanye to change into cash Master Card tickets worth 1,500 euros.